Progress in Adjustment

Yesterday, while brushing my teeth confidently with tap water, I concluded that we are definitely adjusting to this new life at Tenwek. Here is some further evidence that we are adapting well after six weeks in Kenya:

- As I experiment with a new variety of available ingredients, my culinary failures are becoming less frequent and less disastrous.

- I have learned to purchase, prepare, and serve each of these locally-grown vegetables. (What is that large squash-y looking thing, you ask? It’s a pumpkin. Who knew?)

- We have ridden in a matatu just like this one… while it was transporting 14 passengers. Yes, 14. And we did not even fear for our lives, at least not constantly.

- We have found friends with whom we can go running. Running here is a gorgeous experience.

- Our first house guests have come and gone. We had a very wonderful time with Jason’s brothers.

- Anna has made about 40 new friends here, and the entire community greets her by name.

- Abi is very happy and healthy, spunky, cuddly, and smiley. Whenever Jason comes home from the hospital, she giggles and waves her little arms with joy.

- Jason enjoys seeing fascinating new surgical cases every day.

- One persistent difficult adjustment to life here is that we miss our families. In the first month here, we missed 5 major family events in the USA: a graduation (my sister’s, from graduate school), a birth (my cousin’s baby), a death (my great-aunt), a retirement (my dad’s), and Christmas (a major event in my family). The obvious blessing in this sadness is that we are thankful for great relationships with both of our amazing families. Our immediate family members live dispersed across three continents, five countries. This is the first time we have to adjust to living near none of them and missing all of them at once.

All in all, we seem to be settling in here as smoothly as possible. We have begun to feel at home here, and we often laugh about our cultural misunderstandings. Like when I asked to buy "vegetables" and I received just a huge bunch of tough green leaves that I had no idea how to cook. We are grateful for you who pray for us and support us as we continue adjusting to life in beautiful East Africa.